Market With Local, Organic, GMO-Free Foods A New Venture For Historic Comstock, Ferre

KATHERINE PARKER rings up groceries for Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, of Wethersfield, at the Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre in Old Wethersfield. Below, Spiro and Julia Koulouris sit in the business' heirloom seed section. They run the market and manage seed sales. ( Melanie Stengel | Special to the Courant )

WETHERSFIELD — Spiro Koulouris stands behind a shiny new stainless steel table amid the weathered wood of the historic Comstock, Ferre main building, a bowl of dough in front of him.

Koulouris uses an ice cream scoop to drop balls of the wet dough into the cups of a muffin pan.

“Morning glory muffins,” he says, a broad grin across his face. “They have carrots, raisins, chopped pecans and deliciousness. It's a great muffin to enjoy with a cup of coffee.”

Welcome to Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre, the latest incarnation of one of the oldest seed companies in the United States. Koulouris and his wife, Julia, opened their new business last month.

Their plan: create a local market loaded with as many local, organic and GMO-free foods as possible while also offering the highest quality coffee, sandwiches, wraps, salads, paninis and baked goods. All of the market's prepared foods will use as many organic, non-GMO and local ingredients as possible, they said.

The couple say they are still in the soft-opening phase and will steadily expand their offerings in the coming weeks and months.

“We're trying things to see what they [customers] like,” Spiro Koulouris, 41, said.

But their vision goes well beyond stocking and selling local and organic products and making lunch, breakfast and baked goods. The couple, both of whom have long experience in the restaurant business, want to build relationships with local and regional farmers and feature their products in unique and interesting ways.

For example, Julia Koulouris said, the store plans not only to stock Wethersfield red onions, a symbol of the historic town and a source of its early prosperity, but to include the onions in their prepared foods and even provide recipes.

“From farm to food, we want people to experience the whole thing,” she said.

Nor is Comstock, Ferre, founded in 1820, abandoning its deep roots in the seed business. A section of the market is devoted to about 1,800 varieties of heirloom seeds, the same number as when the store was primarily a gardening business.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which bought Comstock, Ferre in 2011, will continue to supply seeds and remains committed to preserving and advancing the historic business' legacy. One of its employees, certified master gardener Ellyn Mavalwalla, moved from California to manage the seed and gardening section of the store.

Baker Creek, one of the nation's largest suppliers of heirloom seeds, is based in Missouri and owned by Jere Gettle. Gettle is a leading critic of genetically modified foods and all of his company's seeds are GMO-free.

Until last year, Baker Creek ran the property primarily as a seed and gardening store. The company is now leasing the property, at 263 Main St., to the Koulourises.

Like the old store, Heirloom Market will bring in speakers and offer classes on gardening, Mavalwalla said. She already has an approximately 50-book reference library, which eventually will expand to 500 volumes, that customers can use to answer gardening and cooking questions. She urged people to bring her their gardening questions — whether they are about soil or identifying a bug.

“We want people to feel that if they have questions, this is a resource,” Mavalwalla said. “If someone has a question that has to do with gardening or food, we'll find a local expert.”

Baker Creek's respect for Comstock's legacy and anti-GMO ethos dovetailed perfectly with the Koulouris' vision, the couple said. Living just blocks away, they always felt that the complex was the place for the business they dreamed of running.

“We take it very seriously to be the custodians of this property in the next chapter,” Spiro Koulouris said.

People often come in with stories of coming to the store as children to buy seeds, the couple said.

The couple said that a desire to own their business and implement their vision and to provide a good atmosphere for their 3-year-old son drove them to open the market.

“He loves being here,” Julia Koulouris, 36, said of their son. “He just runs around and has a blast.”

Unlike the former seed store, Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre is open seven days a week, including Saturdays.